What do you define as a “leadership skill?”

Is it being a good communicator?

Or helping other people to increase their skills and capabilities by being a coach?

Is it understanding strategy and your company’s business goals?

Or is it working collaboratively across departments and divisions to achieve the best outcomes?

Here’s another question to ponder: Why do we label ANY of those things “leadership skills?”

It’s much easier to learn leadership skills as a young working professional than it is for someone who has been on the job for 10 or 15 or 20 years. At that point in someone’s career, you’re actually working harder to UNdo behaviors they’ve been practicing for a decade or more. Yet companies typically wait until someone is promoted to leadership and then start developing their “leadership skills.”

Here’s a list of things we typically label leadership skills:

Critical thinking     Decision making     Risk assessment     Continuous improvement     Strategy     Forecasting     Influencing others     Behaving Ethically     Understanding Finance     Project management Workflow planning     Ethics

NEW Question!!

What makes those “leadership skills” and not general business skills and how hard is it to teach those skills to everyone?

Here are the answers….

• They ARE general business skills, but for some reason we don’t teach them UNTIL someone is promoted to a leadership position. And THAT’s why we label them “leadership skills.”

Are companies afraid to make their employees more capable? Would they rather have someone with limited knowledge and skill - who can only perform a finite task?

There’s a famous quote by Zig Ziglar in which he asks: What’s worse? training your employees and losing them? Or not training them and keeping them?

Perhaps companies are afraid of investing in their employees for fear of the employee going elsewhere…But here’s the kicker – if you DON’T invest in them – they WILL go elsewhere. There have been numerous studies conducted by SHRM and Deloitte and others, that all come to the same conclusion: Millennials and Gen Z workers – those workers under the age of 40 right now – want the same things

-        A job that they believe is purposeful and fulfilling, and

-        Professional development

Above all else. Above promotions, above pay raises, above titles… So if you AREN’T providing skills development, they WILL leave your company to find it.

• It isn’t hard to teach leadership skills to everyone in your organization. There are small, organic things that you can do every day to instill leadership ability.

By teaching leadership skills to all of your employees, you’ll be raising the capability of the whole organization.

More capable people means more productivity; more productivity means more profitability.

So – from this point going forward – let’s all embrace the concept: Leadership skills for all – leadership from day one.